The nation’s first theme park, Santa Claus Land, opened in Indiana in 1946 and has stored on rising.
Today, the vacation sizzling spot is aptly named Holiday World and likewise has sections that pay tribute to Halloween, the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, the place a turkey dinner is all the time on the desk.
Leah Koch, fourth-generation proprietor and director of communications at Holiday World, tells Yahoo Life that, though the park began out all Santa, on a regular basis, “parks dedicated to Christmas were popping up in several locations and [their park] needed to expand.”
Her grandfather, Bill Koch, usually known as the park “a holiday world of fun” and, in 1984, his phrases turned actuality when Santa Claus Land formally turned Holiday World and sections for Halloween and the Fourth of July opened. In 2006, Thanksgiving, the park’s latest land, got here strutting into the line-up.
With two of the park’s award-winning curler coasters situated inside its Thanksgiving-themed gates, the land rapidly gained favor with friends as probably the most thrilling to go to. But, whereas the Voyage, an intense wood coaster ranked amongst Time journal’s prime 5 coasters within the nation and Thunderbird Steel Roller Coaster delight thrill-seeking guests of the Santa Claus, Ind. theme park, there are a number of different rides that, like Thanksgiving’s favourite fowl, do not journey fairly thus far off the bottom.
There’s Gobbler Getaway, a darkish experience the place friends use a turkey caller to spherical up lacking turkeys. On the Turkey Whirl, friends hop right into a turkey-shaped experience automotive and take a spin. The actual draw for a lot of guests, although, is the Plymouth Rock Cafe — a restaurant serving up a full Thanksgiving feast all season lengthy.
But what’s on the Thanksgiving menu once you’re a theme park devoted to holidays?
“We serve all the traditional items like turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, macaroni and cheese, rolls and corn,” Lexi Hartman, director of meals and beverage at Holiday World explains. “We serve our signature Plymouth Rock Cafe’s green beans and then pumpkin or pecan pie for dessert.”
There are different entrees on Plymouth Rock Cafe’s menu like pulled pork, rooster and dumplings and beef brisket, however roasted turkey is by far the favourite amongst park friends.
“We probably bake anywhere from 100 to 150 pounds of turkey breast over a weekend,” Hartman shares, “so, yeah, we make a lot of turkey.”
Hartman’s tip for cooking the moistest fowl is to make use of a brine: a salty mix of liquid, herbs and spices that, when used as a pre-roast soaking liquid for a turkey, may also help the fowl take up extra water and taste through the cooking course of.
“We also use an herb butter to add to the flavor,” she shares.
Hartman remembers that final yr, the COVID-19 pandemic modified how many individuals celebrated Thanksgiving, main Holiday World to place their Turkey Day experience to good use.
“We were looking for ways to bring Holiday World home to our guests,” Hartman says. “It seemed like a lot of people were doing smaller get-togethers, so we put together a take-home Thanksgiving box that would feed six to eight people.”
The meals had been much more widespread than they hoped.
“We had two different individuals who drove more than two hours each way to come pick up their meals,” says Hartman.
Commenters on the Holiday World HoliBlog, had been keen about final yr’s kits, which included a 12-14 pound turkey with herb butter end, turkey gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, macaroni and cheese, inexperienced beans, cranberry sauce, yeast rolls and a pumpkin pie.
“I. Can’t. Wait.” wrote one commenter.
“Are you offering something similar for Christmas?” mused one other.
Hartman says the response in 2020 was so nice that Holiday World will carry the to-go meals again in 2021.
This yr’s package feeds as much as eight folks and, like final yr’s, comes with a 12 to 14 pound turkey, most of the similar sides you will discover served at Plymouth Rock Cafe and a pumpkin pie for dessert. Everything is fully-cooked and wrapped up for straightforward transport — patrons merely reheat and revel in.
Not inside driving distance of Holiday World? You might not be capable of courageous that wood coaster or spherical up misplaced turkeys this yr, however there’s nonetheless a approach to get pleasure from a bit of their well-known Thanksgiving dinner from afar: The recipe for his or her fan-favorite inexperienced beans is out there on the park’s HoliBlog so you’ll be able to simply add it to your Thanksgiving Day menu.
The secret to Plymouth Rock Cafe’s well-known inexperienced beans? In addition to loads of butter, seasoned salt and garlic herb seasoning, it is all within the cooking time. Sauté these beans till heated, however nonetheless crisp.
“You want them to wiggle just a little when you take them out,” the weblog publish reads, explaining that heated beans will proceed to prepare dinner via as soon as faraway from a pan. “If they are floppy, they will be very soggy when you are ready to eat.”
There could also be nowhere else however Holiday World the place you’ll be able to eat a full Thanksgiving meal on daily basis — even within the summertime — then hop on a experience known as the Mayflower, however Koch says for her household, it is about greater than the novelty of all of it.
“It’s not just quirky and fun,” she says. “It’s a delicious meal and this has become a tradition for many of the families who visit regularly.”
